In 1816, respected local housewright William Saunders built a three-story Federal-style house on Brattle Street, a stretch of road in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that would gain renown for its stately homes and
their wealthy and learned occupants. The house was large but, as one Cambridge Historical Commission member would later
describe it, “a real Plain Jane,” to which she added, “and she is beautiful that way.” Thanks to the stewardship of its current owners, the respectful vision of their architectural team, and the erudite input of the historical commission, so it remains today.

“The original owners did not believe in ostentation,” say Charles Sullivan, executive director of the commission. To the
credit of its newest owners, who were dissuaded from a plan to add 19th-century embellishments to the stately but simple
exterior, today the house reflects the commission’s preservation ethic. “Imagining a grander house out of a plain house,” says
Sullivan, “is misleading the public to thinking the building is something now that it never was.”